AWS for M&E Blog
Unleash creative potential with Wacom Bridge powered by HAQM DCV
Wacom Bridge is now generally available. This solution allows creatives such as artists and animators to have a local-like experience with their Wacom digital pen device when working remotely. The solution is available to users of HAQM DCV (including on-premises workstations), HAQM Elastic Compute Cloud (HAQM EC2), and HAQM AppStream 2.0.
What is Wacom Bridge?
Wacom Bridge is a technology offering a local-like experience for creatives on remote workstations. It ensures creators can work seamlessly from anywhere by allowing the use of local Wacom tablets, as if they were directly connected to the host computer.
What is HAQM DCV?
HAQM DCV is a high-performance remote display protocol. It provides customers with a secure way to deliver remote desktops and application streaming from any cloud or data center to any device, over varying network conditions. Wacom Bridge integrates with HAQM DCV by using the HAQM DCV Extension SDK.
Key challenges resolved by Wacom Bridge and HAQM DCV
Latency
Varying network conditions can affect workflow and productivity. Wacom Bridge offers high performance when transferring pen data to remote workstations and solves for latency with Wacom Inkline. Wacom Inkline creates a temporary line drawn locally, bridging the gap between pen tip and draw line, ensuring a fluid creative experience. Wacom Bridge customers use HAQM DCV to create workstations around the world leveraging HAQM Web Services (AWS) Global infrastructure. Users can optimize session latency by utilizing AWS Local Zones—removing distance between remote creatives and their workstation.
Figure 1: An artist displays the Wacom Inkline capability of Wacom Bridge.
Workstation flexibility
Wacom Bridge simplifies customization of workstations to each individual. Wacom Bridge automatically applies application-specific settings on both remote workstation and local device. Users connect and bring their settings to a workstation with Wacom Bridge installed. Wacom Bridge also enables creatives to seamlessly switch their pen input from local and remote systems, requiring no redirection of the Wacom device.
HAQM DCV allows freedom of choice in compute offerings to meet the needs of creative workloads. Customers can choose HAQM EC2 or HAQM Appstream 2.0 and select the right type and size of instance with pay-as-you-go pricing that fits their workload. Customer access the workstation from anywhere with an internet connection, eliminating logistical issues that require high performance and graphics intensive hardware.
Security
Data transmitted from the client and server is encrypted by sending everything through a HTTPS/TLS connection. HAQM DCV transports rendered images as pixels instead of geometry and scene information. This provides an additional layer of security, as no proprietary information is sent over the network.
How to get started
Wacom Bridge is supported on Windows clients and servers. To get started, you need an HAQM DCV server and client running DCV version 2024.0 or higher for Windows. To provision an HAQM DCV server, you may use the open source HAQM DCV Powershell Script or follow the documentation for HAQM DCV Server on Windows.
Install the Wacom Tablet driver v.6.4.8 or later on both the local and remote system. Finally, enter the Wacom Bridge license key on the server system.
If you don’t have a license yet, contact your Wacom Sales representative to purchase a license or obtain an evaluation license.
Check out the AWS re:Invent video: Unleashing creative potential: Wacom Bridge and AWS compute services to learn more about Wacom Bridge architecture and roadmap.
Conclusion
In collaboration with AWS, Wacom has created technology that unleashes new possibilities for creative professionals to work remotely. With the integration between HAQM DCV and Wacom Bridge, users will have a local-like Wacom tablet experience when connecting to remote workstations. This enables studios to leverage the infrastructure and security of the cloud through AWS.
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